Good enough...but suffers from the same problems as "Paycheck".

Rating: 6/10 (15 January 2006)

This is a good and certainly watchable enough movie but still it feels like a waste of a great concept, just like John Woo's movie "Paycheck".
Just like "Paycheck", the movie has a fabulous style and some excellent action sequences but it doesn't blend in very well with the science-fiction elements and story of the movie. The action-style doesn't fit the seriousness and depth the science-fiction elements of the movie require. Just like John Woo, Michael Bay should stick to making action-movies. Science-fiction just isn't his sort of thing to handle.
The concept of the movie is just great, even though it certainly does remind of other science-fiction movies, such as especially "THX 1138" and "The Clonus Horror". Some of the story elements are very good but not everything in the movie feels really connected to each other. The movie is like one sequence after the other without a real connection. You have the feeling when watching this movie that a real good science-fiction director would had made this movie a better one.
I was skeptical about seeing Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as the leads in an action/science-fiction movie. They were good enough though but even still they don't fit their roles very well. But oh well, I think this was perhaps even the point, having two anti-heroes as the main character. Anyway they are two fine actors and they once more show their talent in this movie. Other fine actors in the movie are Steve Buscemi and Sean Bean.
It are really the action sequences and the action-movie style of film-making that save this movie. It makes "The Island" a perfectly watchable flick. The movie features some fine shot action-sequences with some top-class visual effects.
Absolutely a fine watchable movie as long as you don't expect too much of it. Michael Bay simply wasn't the right man for this project that had one fine concept, which has been perhaps a bit wasted by some wrong choices the movie makes.
6/10
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